One week later
The girls' room
Mike's pov
"I don't care if it's a tradition, you are not excused from attending school that day," I said sternly, standing before the girls with my arms crossed and a less than pleasant look on my face.
"Come on, Mike, it's one day and all the seniors are gonna ditch that day," Stacey whined.
"Back me up here, Admiral. Would you please?" I looked to Shane for some support.
"Not all the seniors, Stacey. I happen to know four who won't be participating in this ritual if they know what's good for them," Shane warned our girls.
"Didn't you guys skip on your senior ditch day?" Lisa asked, hoping to make a point and sway our opinion over to their side.
"First, we're not talking about Shane and I, we're talking about the four of you." I paced with my hands on my hips as I lectured. "Secondly, our youthful transgressions do not excuse any of you from consequences for your poor behavior." I gave them the strict paternal look, one eyebrow raised, lips pressed tightly into a thin scowl. "Lastly, just know that if you skip school that day, I will punish you regardless of the discipline you receive from your dean. Am I understood?"
"Ugghhh," Julie voiced her displeasure at my decree. "You guys are being ridiculous, it's no big deal." She flopped back on her bed and sighed loudly, apparently done listening.
"Come here, Julie." I pointed to the spot right in front of me. When Julie didn't move, I loudly mandated, "NOW!"
Slowly dragging herself off the bed, she whined, "What?"
I merely pointed to the spot in front of me, again.
Wisely recognizing my authority, Julie quit testing me, kept her mouth shut and complied with my directive. I not so gently gripped her chin, forcing her to look me in the eye, knowing she's never as brazen when she has to face me directly.
"You'd be wise to watch the words and tone you take with Shane and I, young lady." I narrowed my eyes at her before releasing my grip and harshly slapping the back of her right thigh, causing her to grimace. "Sit down!" I barked, pointing to her bed.
"Alright, jeez," Julie mumbled under her breath, as she turned and rubbed her thigh before returning to take a seat next to her cousin on her bed.
"It's not that deep, Mike, relax," Stacey chimed in her two cents, in defense of her cousin.
"You know what IS DEEP, young lady?" Shane weighed in to address Stacey's less than respectful comment. Having garnered her attention, he continued by answering his own question. "The sting and impression my Admiral's belt can leave on your delicate behind." Shane waited to see if Stacey would challenge him. Thankfully, she didn't.
"Look, Shane and I are done fencing with the four of you. This topic is not open for further discussion. Period. Our expectation is that you will attend school that day. If you choose not to, you will be disciplined accordingly." I stared our girls down. "Do you have anything to add, Shane?"
"No, not particularly." Before turning to leave, Shane said, "And to answer your question, Lisa. Yes, I did skip on my senior cut day and I was caned by both my father and the headmaster. I couldn't sit comfortably for two weeks. You'd be wise to remember that come Friday."
Stacey's pov
When Shane and Mike left, we got down to business.
"So what're our options for Friday?" I asked my cousin and sisters.
"Didn't you just hear what Shane said, Stacey?" Carrie asked worriedly.
"Yeah, so?" I responded.
"I don't want to get caned." Carrie sounded truly petrified by the possibility of getting her ass striped.
"Shane's never caned us before, Carrie, and I hardly think he's gonna start now and certainly not because of something so benign as skipping school on senior ditch day."
"You heard him, Stacey. He sounded pretty confident in his threat." Carrie was clearly afraid of what Shane would do to us if we ditched.
"You guys don't really think he would cane us. Do you?" I looked to Julie and Lisa to weigh in.
"Honestly, I never would have even considered him doing that until he said it, but now I think it's a pretty real possibility," my cousin responded.
"Definitely," Lisa said. "I recognized that look in his eyes and I have no doubt his threat to cane us wasn't an idle one. The only real question is whether Mike would allow him to follow through."
Now I'm starting to get a little worried myself because it sounds like they all honestly believe Shane would do that.
"Come on! You're not serious? Tell me you all don't really believe Shane would cane us?"
They just looked at me and shrugged.
"You know Dr. Curtis has a cane," Lisa said, shuddering at the image in her head.
"Shut up. He does not," Julie replied in disbelief.
"How do you know he has a cane, Lisa? Oh my god, he didn't use it on you, did he?" I asked, shocked by Lisa's news.
"Hell no! Do you think I wouldn't have told you all if he had? Shit, the whole state would've known if he had cuz I would've screamed like a little bitch." Lisa smirked. "No, I saw it when we were at his cottage with Granddad. At first I was afraid Granddad brought it, but then I saw the initials NJC (Neil Jonathan Curtis) carved into the handle so I knew it was Dr. Curtis's."
"Yikes!" Julie was shook.
"I second your yikes and raise you an oh shit, cuz." I tried to shake off the heebie jeebies.
"Let's talk about something more positive. Ok?" Carrie wanted to steer the conversation away from the macabre.
"Yeah, let's get back to our plans for Friday," Julie said, as she got up to grab a drink of water. "I know Suzanne, Kristen, and some other kids are going to Black Lake. They're gonna play beach volleyball, cookout and have a bonfire. That might be fun."
"Some of the girls on my volleyball team are goin' to Six Flags. We could go with them," Lisa suggested.
"Yeah, but that costs a lot of money, Lisa, more than we have anyway," I said.
"You right, you right," Lisa nodded.
"The only other thing I know about is some people are goin' downtown to the baseball game but again, we can't afford the tickets or the parking even, for that matter." I sighed. It kinda sucks to be broke.
"So I guess we're goin' to Black Lake then. Right?" Julie smiled. "I'm excited, this'll be fun."
"Shit, yeah. Anything's better than spendin' another day at that fuckin' school," Lisa said, jumping onboard with our current plan.
"I don't know, guys, I just have a bad feeling about this," Carrie said, rather ominously.
"Good, then it's settled. We're going to Black Lake for senior ditch day," I said, ignoring my baby sister's skepticism.
Friday morning
Lisa's pov
After being warned and threatened repeatedly by Mike and Shane of what would happen if we didn't go to school, we finally were able to take off in Shane's car, so naturally we headed to Black Lake. It took over an hour to get there in rush hour traffic, but once we arrived we quickly forgot about the hassle of the drive and just enjoyed hangin' out with our friends at the beach.
The water was too cold for swimming so we played some volleyball and enjoyed a few cocktails while chillin' on the sand. Suzanne's sister was kind enough to supply us with two large coolers filled with ice, beer, and Seagram's cocktails. Kristen's parents donated the hot dogs, burgers, buns and all the fixins for our lunch. Even though Kristen's dad is the president of the Board of Education, he was still chill with her cutting school today. Damn, how did she get so lucky havin' such chill parents when we literally get our asses whipped for just looking at Mike or Shane the wrong way?
We had originally planned on being home around the same time school let out. It's not like that would stop Mike and Shane from finding out we ditched but we figured it would lessen our sentence. We were havin' such a good time though and we were all slightly to majorly buzzed, except Carrie our designated driver (we didn't want to make that mistake again), so we decided to stay later and enjoy the bonfire and perhaps a few more cocktails. Granted this would probably guarantee we'd be facing a more severe punishment upon our return but that's where the alcohol-fueled clouded judgment came into play.
Around 8pm, Carrie convinced us it was time to head home and face the music. She'd already texted Mike and Shane in the afternoon, before turning off her phone, to let them know we wouldn't be home on time but we were together and safe, so they shouldn't worry. Stacey, Julie, and I purposefully kept our phones off the entire time, even though we knew how much that would piss off Shane and Mike. We figured we gave them enough hints and advanced warning about our intentions for the day so they shouldn't have been surprised we weren't in school.
When we arrived back at the NJC, we were shocked our guardians weren't waiting to greet us at the door. In fact, it was eerily quiet, too quiet. We cautiously walked to our room, sure we would soon hear or see Mike and Shane angrily confront us but we made it there without incident. What we saw when we entered our room, however, was an entirely different story.
A three foot long acrylic cane was laid atop Stacey's bed next to a handwritten note that read The four of you need to bring the cane and your phones to the conference room immediately.
Well fuck me.